Trip planning
Getting to Alaska
Visitors arrive by air, highway or ship
By Leon Unruh / Alaska.com
Vacationers have a wide variety of ways to get to Alaska.
Most trips to Alaska involve flying. The other visitors come by water -- cruise lines and state ferries -- or by highway.
Air travel
Alaska, at the northern edge of the Pacific Ocean, is a crossroads of the world for air travelers.
Nonstop domestic flights arrive in the summer from a list of cities that includes Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Minneapolis, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle.
Domestic airlines serving Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau include Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United.
Alaska Airlines is the only jet carrier for most of the state. From its hub in Anchorage, it serves these cities: Barrow, Cordova, Fairbanks, Gustavus (Glacier Bay National Park), Juneau, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Kotzebue, Nome, Petersburg, Sitka, Wrangell and Yakutat.
International flights arrive from destinations including Frankfurt, Germany; Seoul, South Korea; Taipei, Taiwan; Tokyo, Japan; and Vancouver, Canada.
Alaska (except for the distant reaches of the Aleutians Islands) is in the Alaska time zone. When it's 4 p.m. in New York and 1 p.m. in California, it's noon in Alaska.
Ferry travel
The Alaska ferries carry many passengers -- with or without vehicles -- between many cities and villages on the Gulf of Alaska and Inside Passage.
The ferry system, known officially as the Alaska Marine Highway System, also connects year-round with Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and Bellingham, Wash., an hour's drive north of Seattle.
A common journey has passengers boarding in Bellingham and going as far as Haines or Skagway, where they drive off the ferry and onto highways that connect with the Alaska Highway.
Highway travel
The Alaska Highway was built in 1942 to give the military a direct, safe land route to bases in Alaska. The highway, once a muddy route famous for its difficulties, is now a two-lane paved road famous for its scenery and reliability.
|
Transportation services
